Okay this is probably pushing the envelop a little too far---a warning it contains vore references and religion (but nothing that's real and sacred). Also it gets a little--suggestive but nothing hardcore.

There might be more on the way, depends how I feel and whether or not I get banned for this (just kidding).

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"Well how would you like it," Janet said, putting an unmistakable barb into her voice, "if we called you "˜Skins"™, huh?"

"Sure, as long as I can refer to you as an anthropomorphic monkey." The issue had started when Bill had mistakenly asked what furs called each other since they and humans had varying labels despite both speaking English.

"We"™re not monkeys," Bill growled, "they never found the missing link."

"And I"™m not a collie," Janet snapped, "I don"™t drink from toilets and pee on trees."

It was an old debate, whether or not what the humans called furs were animals or some hybrid of animal and human. The general consensus was that since furs were most commonly identified as what animal they resembled and even named as such like fox, wolf, and lion, then they were treated as anthropomorphic animals.

Likewise furs found humans equally as bizarre because they didn"™t closely resemble something from the wild, hence why the two groups tended to naturally segregate away from each other even in places that supposedly were fully integrated: they both just thought themselves better off with their own kind.

Although there were exceptions. The town of Oakswood, while by no means a shining beacon of diversity awareness and tolerance, still happened to have the most day-to-day interactions between species simply because it was too small and poor to have separate residents.

And of course, there were those who had been more or less forced together through circumstances and had developed compatibility as an alternative to bloody conflict. Although there would always be friction between certain people of certain groups.

"That"™s because you"™re a girl dog," Bill snickered, pointing over at Ven, his lupine roommate and Janet"™s interest, "in the wild it would be up to him to establish the property lines; you would just have the puppies."

"I"™m not a dog," but she did growl like one. At this point Ven snorted and opened his eyes lazily to see the argument before them. Janet turned to her boyfriend and said, "do me a favor, if the primate over there makes another comment about me chasing my tail, eat him."

"Can"™t," Ven said lazily, "he covered my half of the rent this month," then he turned over with a loud sigh and went back to sleep.

"Honestly," Janet shook her head, "how he gets along with such a pig is beyond me."

Bill was about to make an oinking sound when he heard the doorbell. "Hold that thought," he said, turning away, mentally glad for the pause in the debate, "don"™t see what the big deal is," he muttered, "I call Ven and Lira wolves all the time and they don"™t care."

As he got to the door, Bill gazed through the peephole he"™d had installed after the "science incident" as they all called it now---thankfully he saw normal sized people on the other end. Unfortunately, they were holding a large book.

He seriously considered pretending not to be home, but Bill figured it would be best just to get it over with now so they"™d not come back to bother him later. He swung open the door and put on his best smile as the leader of the group, a tall man in a brown suit said, "hi, we"™re with the Journeyers, could you spare a moment to talk about your meaning in life?"

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He crouched low in the darkness, breathing hard. The thundering noise of his pursuer had long since vanished and he thought himself safe from discovery. The young man took a moment to breath in relief; he"™d been sitting here for what felt like hours but what his watch told him to be half a minute.

Slowly he inched out of his hiding place, staring across the flat, yet soft plain that was a deep blue in color. Still no sign, he thought, good, perhaps I"™ve lost---his thoughts were cut short as his previous hiding place was suddenly lifted straight up into the air.

A loud female voice boomed, "well, look what foolish creature has strayed into my lair." A long red vulpine muzzle dropped to within inches of his chest and the black nose inhaled deeply, "I was planning to go out for dinner but it looks like I"™ll be staying in tonight." The fox girl was down on her stomach with her tail end high up in the air like a cat waiting to pounce.

Inwardly he smiled, but in order to stay in character Rick Owens made his best terrified look and held up his hands in a plead, "please, spare me; I am but a humble explorer trying to discover the answer to an ancient question."

His girlfriend, Silvia Redtail, a macro fox, grinned savagely, "oh, so it"™s not just a random wandering morsel this time? What"™s this question you seek to answer? If it"™s whether or not a handsome young man as yourself would be good with mustard and white bread then I can answer that one easily." The vixen flicked her tongue out and ran it over his arms teasingly.

Rick struggled to stay standing from this as he grinned and said, "the question was whether or not I had the most beautiful girl in the world, and it seems that I have discovered that the answer is yes." He bowed, "you humble me, mighty goddess."

Silvia snorted, "Rick that was such a cheesy line. We"™re trying to experiment with real-life role-playing and you pop in some shallow comment designed to get me hot and bothered."

"Did it work?"

The vixen responded by stretching and yawning, raising herself up just enough so that Rick was given a view deep into the valley of her chest, on purpose. As it was summer, the furs, macro and micro, were wearing very little in the way of clothing.

Silvia currently only had on a bra and shorts---she wasn"™t trying to be lewd, it was just a simple fact that those with natural coverings tended to really only concern themselves with concealing their most intimate regions. Rick"™s own T-shirt and shorts looked baggy and outrageous by comparison.

Few humans found furs attractive, but as Rick was one of the strange few who did, his girlfriend"™s outfits always left him feeling ready to explode. He tried his best to be a gentleman, but when your girlfriend could smell your emotional state, it was hard.

"Quite frankly, no. I find your childish tempts at enticement boring. Now, back to the story." She scooped him up gently in her hand and stood to her full height, which to Rick was like accelerating in an elevator to find himself at the top of a skyscraper. "So, my prey, perhaps you"™d like to enter my den?"

Rick wanted to point out that this was her bed she was currently swinging herself up onto but she was clearly going somewhere. The vixen lay back against her pillow and deposited Rick onto her stomach. She licked her lips earnestly this time. "So, your character is an explorer, huh? Perhaps I could show you some places to "˜explore"™ for a better rp next time."

Silvia adjusted her top slightly for emphasis. "Now who"™s breaking character?" Rick said good naturedly. She responded to this by pulling him closer to her chest and curling her legs up behind him. Rick was almost overpowered by her body heat; he wanted to just lie down in the pillow softness of her breasts and doze off as his vision was almost totally surrounded by red fox fur.

"Well the RP has obviously died," Silvia slowly dipped the hand holding Rick down between the round hills, "plus you power-played on several occasions that I let slide, but that last time is going to earn you a stay in the "˜Time-out"™ area." The vixen promptly let her bra snap snugly into place totally covering and immersing the micro within her chest. "For story purposes this is after the insolent little traveler has disappeared down my throat," she sighed with pleasure as Rick began to settle in.

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"You know guys," Bill said, sitting across from the Journeyers at his coffee table, "I"™ll plain with you; I like my current religion and I"™m not really in the market for a new one." His visitors were two humans, a man and a woman, and a third who happened to be a rabbit.

They were nice, he supposed, not the preachy fire and brimstone types who claimed that macro furs stomping and eating people were God"™s punishment for various sins, and considering his own background Bill decided to let them have their say.

Growing up in Atnalta, decidedly one of the worst regions for a human to grow up in, Bill had seen more than his fair share of the deeply devoted, and to some extent still saw it in Oakswood. Everyone wanted to know the answers to the big questions such as, "why did all my children just end up flattened under that guy"™s paw?"

People living in places that had little or no macro related catastrophes tended to not understand why there was such a fundamental movement out in the sticks, but the truth was that it was a necessary survival mechanism for the community, otherwise the sheer cold reality of life would tear things apart.

Although Bill still drew the line at "holier than thou" types. It was one thing to say, "I want to save your soul because I was taught it"™s the right thing to do," and quite another to say, "I have supreme divine authority and you were raised wrong; if you value your soul you"™ll be just like perfect me."

"Oh I perfectly understand your reluctance," the man, probably about twenty years older than he, said. "But if you would flip through the first few sections of the Smo Keyes Ri Bzu Testament, you might find something that causes you to rethink what Life means to you."

Journeyers, Bill had heard of their beliefs, which many could only describe as being "out there." Basically it said that all the micros would face salvation from the troubles of the world if they all journeyed to the land of Smo Keys Ri Bzu.

It was a young religion, scarcely forty years old but Bill had seen it catching with a lot of people, especially young ones. He had no idea where said Journeyers went to but one thing was sure; wherever it was they seemed to like it because few ever returned.

"I might some time," Bill replied and was rewarded with a small handout version of the material with advice to read it front to back several times. It was relatively thin and compact but it shared the same golden stripes that were on the front of the larger book of Smo Keyes Ri Bzu.

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Silvia by now was curled up almost completely into a ball, moaning as her boyfriend stroked her in a sensitive place, a place she reserved only for him. "Gods I love it when you do this," she purred, stretching out fully.

"Heh, I don"™t know why," Rick was panting almost as heavy as she was now, "who"™d of thought rubbing and scratching a girl"™s ear was considered sensual?"

The vixen tilted her head suddenly and he fell off his perch and into her waiting hands that she had close to her face. Silvia began to kiss and lick Rick all over like a newborn kit, nuzzling him on occasion. She loved how humans had such soft; virtually hairless skin that made her want to tie her boyfriend to a backscratcher, thought he eagerly did the job whenever she asked.

"Imagine if Lira walked in right now," Rick chuckled, when she paused to let him rest. One of the downsides of having a two-inch tall boyfriend was that any sort of playing would exhaust him in a matter of minutes; Silvia had long since learned how to pace herself because she knew Rick wouldn"™t.

"Oh, did I tell you that she"™s studying abroad for this week?" Silvia"™s tone dropped to seductive, "leaving poor me all alone in this room with nothing but privacy." By now they were both practically shivering with anticipation.

But however much her instincts told her to, Silvia knew she wouldn"™t try anything of that nature with Rick, not yet anyway. No matter gentle she was, he still occasionally came away from their little cuddles winded and one time long ago she"™d accidentally bruised him.

She loved him, and for that reason Silvia refused endanger Rick just to satisfy her own libido. Plenty of other furs like her who had strange kinks for micros would do so without a heartbeat, and in another time and place perhaps she might have even given into such dark lusts.

However this was Rick, not some random object of pleasure. Silvia respected him as a person and therefore promised herself never to put her own desires above his safety. Although it was certainly frustrating, she would often think as she would watch him doze off, to love someone so fragile and weak.

They both shared this same look of regret. Well, Silvia thought, stroking him with a finger as she rolled Rick across her thigh, there"™s always the power of suggestion. Her mouth watered as he squirmed inadvertently looking like prey for real.

A low sound emanated from the vixen"™s belly that she had just placed Rick on and had been enjoying the sensation of him kissing the inside of her naval. "Oops, getting hungry," she chuckled, glancing at her digital clock, "noon already, my, my, time for lunch."

Rick laughed, "You"™re making me nervous."

"You should be," without warning Silvia popped him into her mouth, bringing Rick to rest on her tongue as she carefully closed her jaws around his soft body, sealing him in darkness. The vixen made a few exaggerated humming sounds as she curled her tongue around him, savoring him like hard candy for a minute before she gently slid him back into her palm.

"Now look," Rick tried to wring out his shirt and shorts, "you always have to make me wash my clothes, don"™t you?"

"That wouldn"™t be a problem if you didn"™t have any clothes," She reached over with a claw to playfully tug at his shirt, "I"™m not too fond of the taste of polyester myself."

Rick suddenly turned serious, "Silvia, I hope you don"™t think it rude of me to ask this but; you"™ve never done it have, you?"

"What?" She drew back a little shocked. It was what most boyfriends asked eventually, but still it had come out of nowhere, "Rick, I"™m shocked in you. You gave me the impression of being such a gentleman when we met and now you ask this?" She grinned hungrily, "the answer would be no, I guess I"™m just waiting for the right guy."

I preferred his first question, Silvia thought. To Rick she said, "of course not, dear. I don"™t think I could stand food begging me for mercy." She brought him up to eye level, "I play it, but I"™d never DO it. You honestly think I might have?"

Rick looked relaxed, "no, of course not. I-I"™m sorry Silvia; I don"™t know what came over me. It"™s just, well, certain other macro furs do prey on people like me and I wasn"™t sure if the only thing keeping me out of your next sandwich was that you liked me."

Silvia set him against the hollow of her throat, her voice vibrating all around him, "Rick, I love you, and I never have, and never will, do anything that would destroy your trust in me." The vixen held him out in front of her now, lowering her hands gently to release him back into her chest.

"Knowing you means that I could never in good conscience harm a human or micro fur because each time it could be another wonderful person like you. I could be denying another girl her mate with my selfishness."

That seemed to placate him a little. Rick said a hasty "I love you," before snuggling down into her cleavage and going to sleep. Silvia smiled, watching him for a long time before she sighed and said aloud, "I just hope he never finds out."

What she"™d said to him was true, but there were certain other"”complications surrounding it that could lead to trouble if Rick ever became aware of certain facts that Silvia wished to remain buried.

Her stomach growled again and she sighed, lifting Rick gently off so as not to wake him, setting him on her pillow she got up and wrote a hasty note telling him that she was off to lunch. There was a new restaurant opening on campus, Silvia decided to try it.

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"What was all that about?" Ven asked Bill as he came back into the living room with his new reading material.

"I just got propositioned by the Journeyers," Bill laughed. "But hey, I got a free book out of it so who"™s complaining." He handed over the text to Ven who studied it curiously.

"Who are the Journeyers?" Ven asked. He was a size-changer macro fur living at micro size and had done so only recently so it was plausible that he didn"™t know about the Journeyers.

"Oh, them," Janet seemed to have forgotten her previous issue with Bill. "Nice people, but they"™re out there. A few came to my father"™s place and it took him four hours to think of a way to politely make them leave."

Bill snorted, "What you mean Mr. Rich just couldn"™t just pay them to leave."

Janet inhaled sharply, and it was imminent that another chewing out session was coming but before she could Ven spoke up, "this logo on the front of the pamphlet, I recognize it. What did you say the name of this place they"™re going was?"

"This one does," Ven frowned, "it belongs to a chain of restaurants called Smokey"™s Ribz. They"™re mostly out west but I heard that a few were opening around here to expand the merchandise--- they got busted by the Food Administration once or twice for putting "˜questionable meat"™ in some of their food. Odd coincidence, what did you say these guys believed in?"

A dead pall settled over the room. Bill looked mortified, the look of someone that had just discovered a terrible and horrid thing masquerading as cute and innocent. It was Janet who finally answered him, "they believe that everyone who goes to a certain place will be admitted to a land of endless light," she said softly.

I pretty much guessed the twist the second they named the religion, but the moment with Silvia was a complete shock. I'm assuming there's a second chapter, and I'm definitely looking forward to it. One voraphile to another.

Bill shuddered at the news, "so wait, getting snatched up off the streets every day wasn"™t enough? You actually had to make a RESTAURANT for it?"

Ven sighed, "technically, no. See when word got out that somehow micros were ending up in the Finger Basket Special, the owner of the company released a statement saying that the entire thing had been accidental, that a bunch of micros had snuck into the processing center to steal food and had fallen in when nobody was looking."

Janet snorted, "and I suppose this happened every single time they turned the oven on?"

The wolf nodded, "right, that"™s what the inquiry said. Don"™t judge us too harshly, Bill, while it"™s true that a lot of what you call macro furs," he was obviously being careful not to set Janet off by using the term fur which she had earlier expressed to be demeaning, "fall into the instinctive temptation to prey on micros, most people by and large will admit it"™s morally wrong, even if just in private to themselves."

"I"™m so happy for them," Bill said sarcastically, "but don"™t forget what Janet said; the unlucky souls who get dragged into that cult still disappear eventually, so obviously it"™s still going on." He shook his head and tisked, "the more I get to learn about you people the more bloodthirsty you seem."

"Hey," Ven sounded defensive now, as anyone would be when their race was criticized for faults, real or not. "I never said that they were still doing it. The last case happened six years ago. It"™s entirely possible that the cult never died and just kept on recruiting people without knowing the truth."

"What about the missing?"

"Janet just said that they leave their homes," Ven replied, "it"™s entirely possible that all they do is move to another place and never come back. You know how well communication between micro towns and cities is, Bill, remember two months ago when you, Rick, and Tom found that playground half a mile from here and thought it was an actual newly discovered city? Not to sound elitist, but "˜you people"™ tend to be pretty isolationist."

"And whose fault is THAT?" Bill snapped. "Every time Oakswood tries to string telephone wires over to Flowery Limb some macro kids come along and tear them down because they think it"™s funny AND so they can lie in wait for the poor bastards that get sent out to repair it. I think after the fourth time they just gave up, but by then they had to build a memorial."

That gave Ven cause to hesitate. Statistically speaking nine out of ten of what the humans and micro furs called "rampages" were done by someone under the age of thirteen. "And now one of those places is opening, where you said?" Bill asked.

"Last I heard," Ven muttered, "it was in the food court of my sister"™s college."

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Silvia had heard Smokey"™s Ribz from Lira, as she"™d remarked on more than one occasion, "it was my FAVORITE place to go when I was a kid; my whole family ate there every Friday Night!" At which point the shewolf would turn said and remorseful and say, "until they closed the one in our town for some reason; never did find out why but those Finger Basket Specials were the absolute BEST!"

Lira and Ven were from out west and had moved to the southeastern region where Silvia and Rick had lived their entire lives before meeting each other. The vixen sometimes thought back on this and regretted not having seen more of the country.

Rick, on the other hand, considered himself to have gone further than most other humans even though he had moved the equivalent to five miles in her kind"™s measurement. But then, considering how hazardous it was for micros to travel, perhaps it wasn"™t so strange.

"Can I take your order, miss?" A bored looking Tabby said from behind the cash register as she tried to look perky and happy. Silvia suppressed a smirk, she"™d been down that road and probably would again as she began to work for her fall spending money.

"Hmmm, yes," she was here because of Lira"™s advice, otherwise not really knowing anything about Smokey"™s Ribz so Silvia decided to order the same thing that had also been recommended and ten minutes later sat at a table gnawing on a piece of fried meat from the Finger Basket Special.

Rick should be waking up, she thought, reaching in for another, I should finish quick and be back---hmmm Lira was right, these DO taste good." Silvia"™s fingers wrapped around the next piece when something odd happened.

It moved.

Instantly the vixen"™s heart stopped cold as she imagined there being some sort of vermin that had gotten in---and I just ate several parts of this! She thought. Very cautiously Silvia let go off the squirming thing, withdrew her carefully so as not to be bitten by the rabid rat, and then with her other hand she lifted back the paper cover of the basket and then looked in.

Wow they don't even bother cooking them, guess they just kind of stuff them in there. Also was I the only one who wasn't at all surprised this used to be Lira's favorite restaurant, man Bill sure can pick them

Rick awoke with a yawn, his entire body tingling from the"”cuddle he had just undertaken with his girlfriend. Looking over to his right he saw the sticky note Silvia had left on her pillow by him detailing her excursion out to lunch.

Sighing happily, imagining what they"™d do when she came back, Rick stared up at the ceiling for a second, closing his eyes. He made minimum wage, had to write to get by rather than for artistic purpose, and lived in a town that couldn"™t support so much as a decent hospital, yet, he wouldn"™t have left it for the world.

The only thing that bothered him sometimes was knowing that there was no way he"™d ever be able to take care of his girl in the manner that his father had raised him to. True, Silvia would laugh at the idea of it, but Rick still had the old fashion programming that a man cared for his woman before himself, emotionally and financially.

Although he had to admit that Silvia had thus far taken care of him more. Rick occasionally felt embarrassed at this fact; he was no chauvinist, but still, having your life saved by your girlfriend because you were helpless in the situation tended to hurt the male ego a little.

A loud, resounding click snapped his attention back to the real world. He first thought it was Silvia coming back until a decidedly masculine voice boomed, "Room-checks; you better not have anything contraband in there."

Rick"™s heart began pounding as he watched the door open and a tiger stepped into the room. He then began to unceremoniously check the drawers and closet for any drugs or alcohol that the occupants were hiding.

All the human could do was freeze; a canine macro fur might not have noticed a sudden bolt for cover but it was a feline in this case so if he moved then Rick might as well be glowing and ringing bells. All he could hope was that the tiger RA would just make a quick search and then leave.

I wonder if I"™m contraband. Rick thought, a cold sweat breaking out as the tiger drew nearer. He sat there, motionless except for his breathing for what felt like hours as the search continued, a distant part of his mind noting that while Silvia would be clean, there was still a level of uncertainty with Lira.

All right, Rick thought as the tiger began checking under Lira"™s bed which was across the room from Silvia"™s that he still occupied, I"™m gonna get spotted anyway, might as well make a break for it and hope that he gets startled.

Yeah, right, a little voice in his head answered, predators don"™t get startled by that, they just get excited. Rick decided to try the Quail Tactic that some humans and furs swore had saved their lives because they actually managed to startle the macro fur that hadn"™t seen them yet.

He waited until the tiger was leaning almost over him then acted, jumping to his feet and dashing towards the crack between the bed and the wall----from the corner of his eye he saw the macro fur leap back in surprise at the sudden flash of motion.

I"™m gonna make it! Rick thought excitedly, heart thumping with excitement, the Quail Tactic really does---"Shit!" The expletive left his mouth as he was snatched off the ground by a pair of grasping, orange and black striped fingers.

"Well, what do we have her?" The tiger frowned, sniffing Rick who was currently thankful not to be dangling by one leg----he positively HATED when they did that. The RA shook his head and sighed, "should have known," he muttered, "there IS a fox in this room."

"Um, hi." Silvia was dumbfounded by her meal"™s occupant. The vixen was vaguely aware of how stupid she must have looked to anyone gazing over, but for the moment she didn"™t care. There was a live micro in her lunch basket, and from the looks of things, he was rather young.

But WHY is there a human in my lunch basket? Silvia frowned, realizing that she still had a piece of meat in between her teeth. She chewed it up slowly, hoping it wasn"™t the kid"™s mother and then swallowed hard. Despite being a fox, with a mouth and designed to rip and swallow, the lump felt massive and uncomfortable going down.

Shooting a quick glance around to make sure no one was seeing this, Silvia checked the basket more humans, and finding none she scooped up the little kid in one hand and tenderly closed her fingers around him, hiding him from sight as she tossed the empty basket and briskly walked out of the restaurant glancing at the health inspection score that hung on the wall.

"One hundred my fluffy red ass," Silvia muttered.

If the human was not completely catatonic he didn"™t show it for a while. The vixen found a secluded spot behind some trees on a hill and opened up her hand, bringing him to level with her muzzle. She took a few cautious sniffs; he smelled just like honey mustard and ketchup.

Her mouth watered involuntarily and she swallowed quickly, hoping he wouldn"™t notice. Unfortunately by doing so a small bit dribbled down Silvia"™s lip. Embarrassed, the vixen quickly licked her muzzle"”which sent the wrong message.

"Please don"™t eat me!" The human wailed, drawing back in terror. He didn"™t cry, though, something she found unusual, or perhaps he"™d simply run out of tears long before she"™d discovered him.

Silvia reached over with a finger and in the same manner as she would with Rick, began to stroke him lightly across the back, and in her gentlest tone said, "I"™m not going to. You"™re safe, now, don"™t be afraid little one. But how did you get in there?"

Whatever his answer, Silvia made a note to eat more slowly from now on. Too many furs like Lira would, no pun intended, just wolf down anything set before them like their wild counterparts. Silvia hated to think what she might have accidentally done if she had still been zoned out while eating and the kid had decided to faint when she reached for him.

"Please tell me," she said softly, thinking back to how her father would talk when he wanted to know whether it was her or her younger Sister that had broken a lamp playing. "I"™m not mad at you, I just want to know what happened."

It was hard to tell whether or not this worked, but the kid seemed to have decided that he stood a better chance of avoiding her jaws if he cooperated. "I was put into it," he whispered quietly. Only Silvia"™s acute hearing managed to register it. "This guy who worked in the kitchen brought me here from my home," he shuddered, finally producing tears.

"He showed me to another giant person and said "˜we can bring back the old flavor"™ but his boss said, "˜no, I won"™t risk another fine, we"™ll get fired. A-and then the guy who was holding me saw you come in. He thought you were pretty and said to another guy, not the same guy as before "˜I bet I can score with that vixen if I give her a treat."™

And then I got put into a dark place that had hot things in it, and you reached in, and," he began to cry in earnest now, "and now you"™ll eat me because of what he told his friend when his friend called him crazy for thinking it."

Silvia sighed, knowing the answer before she even asked, "what did he tell his friend?"

Two round, watery eyes stared back at her as he answered, "he said "˜no way, foxes eat little humans like they"™re candy"™!"

Well he certainly had that part right, Silvia thought guiltily. She personally had never partaken of said "candy", probably because she"™d never even seen a human before Rick, although it was no secret that many other vulpines, some even from her own family, had.

It was why she"™d been totally hesitant about telling anyone she knew about her boyfriend. It was probably more for his own safety than anything else. Oh, she wanted to cringe, I hope Rick never finds out what my kind did to his!

"Um, hi." Rick said it in as loud a voice as he could. To his credit, the tiger didn"™t react like other macro furs to a micro speaking, namely that they always seemed to be surprised that such tiny things even possessed the brainpower to do so, much less speak the same language.

"Hi yourself," his captor had a coy smile, "odd, no screams. Isn"™t this where you start begging me not to eat you?"

Rick shrugged, or would have had not the macro fur"™s thumb and forefinger been pressing down on his shoulders. "In my experience, that line never works on anyone who genuinely wants to do it. By the way, I"™m Rick. Who are you?"

"I"™m Ben," his response was gruff and no nonsense. "You"™re a human, right? Just making sure because I"™ve only seen pictures of them in books and want to make sure I don"™t report," he glanced at a small chart he"™d been carrying in his other hand, "Miss Silvia Redtail for planning to eat the wrong micro."

"Report?" Rick blinked, "for what?"

"For violating the ban on hunting humans," Ben replied matter-of-factly, "it expires in a month, but still, even if it were tomorrow or ten years from now it would be the same result; a maximum of five years and a fine of ten thousand."

All that he said hit Rick at once like a whirlwind. He didn"™t know what to respond to first though his scattered mind eventually settled on, "what"™s this ban thing?" And like anyone ever follows it, he added silently.

Ben gave him an odd look, and Rick got the distinct feeling that all that he had said to try to make himself appear as an equally intelligent being had just been wasted. "Geez, don"™t you know anything? Thanks to the foxes your kind nearly went extinct! You had to be put on the endangered species list thanks to the fox people over-gorging on you."

"The what? We"™re WHAT?" Rick considered himself a good speaker due to his education to become a writer, but right now he was speaking almost total gibberish. "What about the foxes?"

"I said," Ben sighed, "the foxes dang near wiped you out because humans are practically their favorite food in the world! There were over six billion of you at what time but when someone even bothered to start estimating populations over a dozen years ago placed at around less than a hundred thousand."

"Huh," was the only stupid reply that Rick could manage. Given how things are in the world, I didn"™t even know that there were even a billion of us at any one time. The next thing to cross his shell-shocked, emotionally-delayed mind was, I wonder if my girlfriend knows about this?